Triangle
by SkyChild
Summary: A collection of drabbles focusing on Soubi, Kio and Ritsuka, originally written for the loveless100 community at Livejournal.
1. Shadows

**Title:** Shadows  
**Challenge:** Shadows  
**Pairings/Characters:** Soubi, Kio, Ritsuka  
**Rating:** General  
**Word Count:** 336

Challenge read in Vienna. Drabble created in a train while crossing the Austrian-German border. Typed and uploaded in Leipzig.

~*~ Shadows ~*~

Shadows had crept into those eyes.  
He knew, because he liked to watch when the other wasn't paying attention, because he liked the way those bright orbs reflected any emotion running through that agile mind behind them.  
Every time Soubi's consciousness was swallowed by darkness after a fierce battle, they would be a bit darker once the other had patched him up and he was returning to the world of the waking.  
Right now, he sensed those eyes on himself as well, as he got up and left the auditorium in the middle of lecture.  
He hated the shadows eating away the light that kept him near the other man.  
And there was nothing he could do.

Time to fetch Ritsuka from school.

* * *

Time to fetch Ritsuka from school.  
By now, he knew Aoyagi's schedule by heart, knew when Soubi would wordlessly take his leave, leave him.  
The older Aoyagi had been the darkness falling between them, a shadow turning the Soubi Kio knew into a shadow himself, untouchable, cold, fleeting.  
Yet, whereas the younger brother had more shadows to him than a 12-year-old should have, to Soubi he was... light.  
Something Kio so longed to, but never would be.  
He felt cold all of a sudden.

...  
He hated shadows.

* * *

He hated shadows. He feared them.  
Especially those in his mind, where the first eleven years of his life were supposed to be.  
The quiet ticking of his watch announced the passing hours as Ritsuka stared into the night outside his window, waiting.  
No, he corrected himself after a while. He didn't fear them anymore.  
He had lost his existence to the shadows two years ago. Now, however, he had found another one.  
One, where neither the darkness of the battlefields nor the pain he suffered as a Sacrifice managed to scare him.

...  
Because he wasn't alone, Ritsuka though with a tiny smile as Soubi's bright figure stepped into the light of his room, leaving the shadows of the night behind.


	2. Two for Tragedy

**Title: ****Two for Tragedy**

**Characters:** Soubi/Kio  
**Rating:** PG (darkness ahead)  
**Word Count: ** 329

Music: Shannon Moore – Hymn for those left behind

Dedicated to EnchanterRhea as a birthday present... all the best to you, girl, live life to the fullest and keep up your great work!

Title taken from a song by Nightwish (I'm not very innovative when it comes to titles anyway).

**Two for Tragedy**

Fourteen by now.

It makes Soubi feel slightly sick to count them, yet for some reason he does so again and again. Just to be sure.

Kio, all agile mind and mile-a-minute mouth, standing in front of the canvas, complaining about Soubi being too nonchalant when it comes to work, gesticulating, brush in hand, free hand tugging impatiently at his earrings... oblivious to Soubi watching.

Fourteen of them, seven per ear.

"_Pierce me!"_

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I've got silver needles... come on, pierce my lobe!"_

"_It will hurt."_

"_Do it!" Shoving the equipment into Soubi's hand, those eyes dark and desperate, readying himself for the pain, mouth a grim line..._

_The first flinch, the first droplets of blood, eyes holding even more darkness, hand coming up to grab Soubi's, keeping the needle near his lobe. _

"_Another one!" Grasp tightening as Soubi hesitates, other hand clenching in his lap._

"_Only one more!" It wasn't to be the last one, the last time the needle pier__ced living flesh, the last pain... until Soubi blatantly refused his wish, laying down the needle, pulling back, taking in the trembling figure, small droplets of crimson clinging to the pale skin of his ear._

"_Stop it, Kio. This isn't you."_

_A thoughtful smile. "Serves me right, hm? This pain..." _

Kio, holding the brush between his teeth, hands busy trying to wipe splatters of paint from the canvas, cursing, smiling about his own clumsiness, fourteen earrings glittering in the sunlight.

No other reminders are left of one night's desperation many months ago. Yet... not only his earlobe had bled at that night.

You asked for it, gave me all... your ears, your heart, your pain... a pain that didn't come from the pierced flesh.

And you call me a pervert?

Now, Kio is doing the piercing himself, bringing the the number of deliberately inflicted wounds up to fourteen.

You don't need me to hurt you anymore.

Seems I taught you well... something I never even wanted to learn.


	3. Ties of the Past

**Title:**** Ties of the Past**  
**Challenge: Shoelaces**  
**Pairings/Characters: Ritsuka**  
**Rating: G**  
**Word Count: 425**

Ties of the Past

Usually Ritsuka managed to go through his morning routine and slip out of the door without getting into much trouble.

But not today, it seemed.

He was just about to slip into his shoes, crouching to tie his shoelaces, when he heard quiet steps behind him... "Ritsuka... let mommy help you."

He froze at being adressed like that by that soft voice. Was that... another trap set to confirm her knowledge that he had stolen her son away?

He wanted to answer, to tell her that he was 14 by now, that he was old enough to tie his laces on his own, when she crouched down next to him, her body of a warmth that once probably used to comfort him, taking the laces from his trembling fingers and tying them firmly. "You still need your mommy to do that for you... You're too young to do it by yourself..."

Ritsuka sat, frozen stiff and almost shivering as his mother leaned back a bit, smiling. "Here you go... Now hurry, Ritsuka, don't be late for school!"

Before any outbreak of violence could follow her gentle words, before he would again do something not fit for her beloved little Ritsuka, he shook himself out of his paralysis, grabbed his bag and rushed out of the door, running down the street

After several hundred metres he stopped, flopping down on a bench and burying his head in his shaking arms.

Of course... the Ritsuka of two years ago would still be dependent on his mother, would still need her to tie his shoelaces for him. He, however, wasn't. And that's what his mother couldn't accept... still clinging to the past of a boy he didn't know.

But even "her" Ritsuka would by now be old enough to tie his shoelaces on his own! _He _was old enough!

And Soubi, that idiot, is exactly like that, Ritsuka thought with a painful pang in his chest. Fighting on his own, hiding his injuries from me... he's like her! Not trusting me to be strong enough to fight with him, to be his Sacrifice!

There was one major difference between his mother and Soubi, though, Ritsuka mused. Soubi... would never hurt him. Soubi... loved him.

And while the boy had given up on making his mother see that he was no little child anymore, with Soubi things where different.

I will definitely prove that I'm capable of being his Sacrifice... to take care of him as he always takes care of me. To him, I'll definitely prove it!


	4. Last one standing, last one to fall

**Fandom**: Loveless

**Characters**: Soubi/Kio

**Challenge**: Domino

**Date**: 21/05/07

**Words**: 281

* * *

**Last one standing, last one to fall**

So here they went again, Kio mused.

He saw Soubi sway in the doorframe and took a quick step forward to catch him, willing his legs not to give in to the full weight of his friends collapsing into his arms.

He struggled heavily and, once more, managed to remain standing, although his muscles, his very soul, screamed at the abuse, at the pain of the pressure put upon them.

Holding Soubi, swaying, but not yet giving in out of sheer stubbornness, he realized that, one day, they both would fall.

Because in the distance, in his friend's pain-clouded eyes, Kio saw the dawn of something inexorable, like domino stones tipping, gaining momentum, closing in on Aoyagi and Soubi…

It was only a question of who, in their twisted triangle of manipulation and love and pain and madness, would be the first one to fall, taking the others with him, Kio thought as he half pulled, half carried Soubi over to the bathroom to clean him up and tend to his wounds.

And as he took quivering steps towards their destination, as he was trembling, as Soubi was leaning into him heavily – probably unconscious by now – Kio found himself as the last stone to inevitably fall.

With a chuckle, he cleaned the scars on Soubi's neck that'd started to bleed again. The last domino stone standing… that was a good thing to be, even though the last stone was the one to bear the weight of all the other stones fallen before him.

Who cared, anyway.

He was used to carrying more than he actually could.


	5. Expectations

**Title: Expectations**

Date: 26.07.2009

Fandom: Loveless

Words: 360

* * *

[Another cigarette being lit.]

He had expected basically anything.

[Deep drag being taken.]

He had expected anything and spent the time waiting (time had stopped having any meaning to him the moment Seimei's heart had stopped beating) running all possible outcomes through his mind.

[Children laughing and shouting.]

Or rather, if he was being honest to himself (though thinking about what he was feeling and wanting was by now a foreign mental process to him), he had struggled to return to that state he had been in before meeting Seimei.

The absolute, ruthless willingness to completely hand himself over to another being.

[School bell ringing.]

Briefly, he had thought of Kio. The other boy would have his hide if he knew that 'Sou-chan' was on his way to find his new Master. To once more offer himself to a Sacrifice without even being able to hope that he might gain anything in return.

He couldn't help it. Kio neither knew nor could have accepted that Soubi's body, soul and mind had long since ceased to be his own, and that losing his Sacrifice hadn't returned them to him, instead making him feel floating, empty and bereft of feeling. He couldn't remember otherwise.

He had expected anything, but mostly – harshness and contempt. Because Seimei's brother hadn't come for him. Which meant that he probably didn't want a discarded second-hand Weapon.

[Cans being kicked across the school yard.]

But an order given by Seimei was more than law. He would belong to Seimei's brother, and part of him took dark, feverish delight in that thought. Finally, he could belong again, be given orders and fulfil a Master's desires. He would welcome any pain Seimei's brother might inflict on him, because it was a punishment he deserved for not being able to protect his Sacrifice.

[Deep drag being taken.]

He would live to fulfil his late Sacrifice's order – what more could a Weapon want?

[Expecting basically anything.]

Except for such huge eyes full of hurt and longing, for such innocence and such a warm grip on his arm, such a bright smile at the thought of 'making memories'.

He had expected basically anything.

Except for Ritsuka.


End file.
